Restic Giving Back

OregonLive.com - All fall, Joseph Restic has left his Wilsonville orthodontist office to head to the football field, where he has served as the volunteer head coach of the Wilsonville Wildcats eighth-grade football team.

"I love working with the kids," he said, noting that coaching is an opportunity to give back to the community that has supported his practice for more than 20 years.

The players were fascinated to learn that he played football at Notre Dame alongside legendary quarterback Joe Montana as well as Eugene "Rudy" Ruettiger, the impetus for the movie "Rudy."

A longtime coach for his son's Lake Oswego youth football team, Restic says he heard about the opportunity from Barry Larsen, a Wilsonville youth football coach who is the father of one of his patients.

Restic, the son of a Harvard University football coach, said he grew up on the sidelines, helping at practice and serving as water boy.

He earned a football scholarship to Notre Dame and was subsequently drafted by the Chicago Bears, though he was eventually cut. While earning his doctorate in dental medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, he was recruited by a United States Football League team, the Boston Breakers, which eventually became the Portland Breakers. Restic fell in love with the area and attended Oregon Health Sciences University for his orthodontic training.